West of Roan is a duo of Annie Schermer and Channing Showalter, two visual and performing artists, who share a love of old folk and myth, close harmonies, shifting drone and puppets. Though grounded in old, ancestral traditions—Celtic and Norse mythology, unadorned singing and the plangent tones of fiddle—the pair have resolutely avoided folk purism. “We’re pretty careful about performing traditional music,” Showalter explains.“ We think it through and we think about what we want to say about the song that we’re singing that’s not ours, and if we don’t feel like we really have much to say about it, we don’t always choose to sing it.”
Category: The AD Interview
Ethan Iverson :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
Ethan Iverson is a rare bird, a jazz musician who’s just as adept at writing about the form as he is playing it. As a member of The Bad Plus, the recorded a series of adventurous albums with the trio between 2001 and 2016, incorporating covers of artists like Radiohead, Aphex Twin, and Pink Floyd along the way. In 2017, he departed The Bad Plus, turning his focus to albums like his new Blue Note outing, Technically Acceptable.
Thurston Moore & Eva Moore From The Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at Naropa University :: A Conversation
On the occasion of his 66th birthday, Thurston Moore and his wife and creative partner Eva Moore drop in from the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at Naropa University to discuss collaboration and that time Henry Rollins grew out his hair.
Jake Xerxes Fussell :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
The quality of Jake Xerxes Fussell’s output has stayed remarkably consistent over his first five albums, but his confidence in his abilities as an interpreter and the audacity of his song selection continue to grow. The nine songs on his newest, When I’m Called, gather out of the vastness of the past few centuries of sung songs to talk to one another, elaborate on one another, and thread each other through with intertwined meaning.
Danny Paul Grody :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
Coming relatively hot on the heels of last year’s Arc Of Day, Danny Paul Grody’s latest LP picks up right where he left off. Arc Of Night (credited to the Danny Paul Grody Duo, thanks to drummer Rich Douthit’s invaluable contributions) sees the Bay Area-based guitarist heading into more nocturnal zones over the course of seven transformative instrumentals. Aquarium Drunkard hopped on Zoom with Danny to get shed a little light on this Night.
You Can Sound Like Yourself :: David Bazan on Pedro the Lion’s Modesto
Nothing is simple. Self-knowlege is won painfully, insight by insight, song by song. On his latest album under the Pedro the Lion banner, Santa Cruz, songwriter David Bazan examines the complications of family, faith, and the past—and how it informs the present moment.
Linda Thompson :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
On her new album, Linda Thompson doesn’t sing. But her ever-vibrant personality is on full display on the aptly named Proxy Music. Joined by vocalists like Rufus and Martha Wainwright, John Grant, Eliza Carthy and Dori Freeman, the record captures the melancholic spirit of her classic albums with Richard–who shows up here, too.
Alejandro Escovedo :: On Echo Dancing and His Counterculture Roots
On paper, journeyman songwriter Alejandro Escovedo’s latest album Echo Dancing is a career-spanning look back at his song catalog. In actuality, the record is something more radical—a reimagining that embraces scuzzy electronics, minimalist electric blues, and dubby vocal effects. He joins us to discuss it, dig into his counterculture roots, and share which member of the Velvet Underground “scared the shit” out of him.
Zachary Cale :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
Like most of us during the dog days of the pandemic, Brooklyn singer-songwriter Zachary Cale found himself adrift, searching for inspiration in thoroughly weird times. He found it in a Red Hook art studio, where a piano sat, mostly unused. Cale’s primary instrument is the guitar — you can hear his expert playing all over his previous records. Composing on piano wasn’t his usual mode. But during those long nights in Red Hook, songs started to come.
Cornelius :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
From his home in Tokyo, Cornelius joined us to discuss the ethereal qualities that make up his current material, his longtime admiration for The Durutti Column, looking back on breakthrough album Fantasma, the Kraftwerk-inspired visual components that augment his live performances, and much more.
Bonnie “Prince” Billy :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
Will Oldham has known Daniel Higgs for decades, first in Baltimore in the late 1990s, later putting up the Lungfish auteur whenever he passed through Louisville. So when his friend, musical collaborator and Louisville neighbor Nathan Salsburg suggested covering a Lungfish song that he’d been singing to his infant daughter, it made perfect sense to Oldham.
Arab Strap :: I’m Totally Fine With It Don’t Give A Fuck Anymore
It’s no accident that Arab Strap’s eighth full album has a couple of emojis in the title. A disgruntled, disgusted masterwork, I’m Totally Fine With It lives in the belly of the digital beast, spewing blasted poetry at the dits and dots that move through its digestive tract.
Jeffrey Silverstein :: On The Far Out, Psychedelic Swampiness of Roseway
With his new EP Roseway, Jeffrey Silverstein continues his journeyman drift, wedding country ballads to funk boogies and laser-guided motorik drive to languid, swamp-ready guitars. With his Telecaster Deluxe strapped on, Silverstein cut the recordings with his band. The music picks up where his last full-length, Western Sky Music, left off. We caught up with Silverstein to discuss how it came together. Our conversation, edited for clarity and cohesion, is presented here.
Alan Braufman :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
“You don’t have grief without love.” Saxophonist Alan Braufman got his start in the early ’70s NYC loft jazz scene, where he took in shows by Sun Ra and other firebrand luminaries. More than 50 years later, he’s still at it with a post-bop stunner, Infinite Love, Infinite Tears. He joins us to discuss.
Catching Up With Bill MacKay
Locust Land, is Bill MacKay’s first album since 2019. It’s a mix of folky vocal melodies and transcendent instrumental reveries, intricate in execution but sublimely easy to listen to. We caught up to talk about MacKay’s life in guitar; the way that structured, sung songs and open-ended improvisations can say the same things in different ways, and how he hopes his music will land with people.